Hi, I'm ready now, this is my first build for acoustic guitar, never bending side before but I've ever built 2 electric guitar for my son, 1st electric guitar last 2 years and done last year and 2nd electric upright bass from motolla plan and done 3 months ago.

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This is my material for this chalange:01 Plan from LMII $10.4002 Rambutan wood $1 just for a man who cut this log to quartersawn http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambutanhttp://www.woodworkerssource.com/rambutan.html I just know this spec of Rambutan Excotic hardwood this morningAnd this wood I cut from my mother backyard...03 Sitka Spruce AA from Stewmac $17.3304 ETC: Macassar Ebony for fingerboard and bridge for $9, end pin ebony from lmii for $1.70, Economy tuner from Stewmac for $ 13.55 and mahogany board for Neck no $ hehe 05 Fretwire I have 2, evo gold and stainless, maybe I'll use stainless (But I'll try for difficulty) to match the chrome tuning machine..06 Bone from Cow, and I found this from Bakso seller (beef meatball) I need some suggestion: I'll build Back a little Arch for bigger bass sound so my Back wood 150mm thickand for bridge I'll change standard bridge with Archtop adjustable bridge with bone saddle and the small wood tailpiece with my own build, what you think??? thank a lot...And my build name is: "ARCHBACK Martin style 5"

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Cool, EUB Herry! What kind of strings are on that thing? How would you describe it's sound? Like an electric? An upright?

The string actually was wrong bought for the right length, this string I bought eub built before (GHS bass boomer extra long scale 35") but I was difficulty to buy again like Helicore 46" for $ so, I modified with add a tail piece so that the string enough length. The sound like upright, I used the piezo under saddle pickup and the pre Amp from Walter cafe with vintage sound produce

Nice electrics! Also that rambutan looked awesome! Never heard of it before. Is it commonly used in guitars in your area? Best of luck with your build.

Zeke,.. some fruit tree here like mango, durian usually for home building (village house people), jackfruit also and for carving, but rambutan they don't like because of more harder than another, so I concluded rambutan is a hardwood, so I try to cut it,... it turns out to the web I saw this morning is an exotic hardwood, and you can see on :Rambutan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediathe rambutan fruit is I like it so much,... Reddish brown with irregular dark lines, dense, wavy, wild grain pattens... I have some quarter sawn but just small for small guitar or uke, do you want Zeke???

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Indeed, love the rambutan! If you have plenty, add me to the list Maybe we could have you mail several sets to one of us to save on international shipping, and then they split it up and mail out locally?

Side bending is hard, but fun. My bender is a hunk of 3" diameter exhaust pipe from a local muffler shop, and an electric charcoal starter, run through a dimmer switch. Or you could go old fashioned and use actual charcoal as the heat source Or a propane torch.

Looking forward to watching the build. I've gotta make one of those size 5 guitars myself someday.

Indeed, love the rambutan! If you have plenty, add me to the list Maybe we could have you mail several sets to one of us to save on international shipping, and then they split it up and mail out locally?

Side bending is hard, but fun. My bender is a hunk of 3" diameter exhaust pipe from a local muffler shop, and an electric charcoal starter, run through a dimmer switch. Or you could go old fashioned and use actual charcoal as the heat source Or a propane torch.

Looking forward to watching the build. I've gotta make one of those size 5 guitars myself someday.

thank's DennisK, my new bender is 3" dia stainless steel pipe and I'm planning for buy an electric charcoal starter, it's cheap here,... for the rambutan I have some and that's I cut 2 year's ago for quartersawn but unfortunatedly it's for small guitar and much for uke size I think for back and side ... and the weight is heavy (higher cost for shipment)

Indeed, love the rambutan! If you have plenty, add me to the list Maybe we could have you mail several sets to one of us to save on international shipping, and then they split it up and mail out locally?

Side bending is hard, but fun. My bender is a hunk of 3" diameter exhaust pipe from a local muffler shop, and an electric charcoal starter, run through a dimmer switch. Or you could go old fashioned and use actual charcoal as the heat source Or a propane torch.

Looking forward to watching the build. I've gotta make one of those size 5 guitars myself someday.

thank's DennisK, my new bender is 3" dia stainless steel pipe and I'm planning for buy an electric charcoal starter, it's cheap here,... for the rambutan I have some and that's I cut 2 year's ago for quartersawn but unfortunatedly it's for small guitar and much for uke size I think for back and side ... and the weight is heavy (higher cost for shipment)

this day I did for jointing the Back and Top, made the template, tomorrow I'll post that...

Wow, who knew rambutan trees made such pretty wood! I used to love the fruit as a kid, although of course I only ever had the canned version. Can't wait to see the guitar. I guess it will be like a Martin size #5?

Wow, who knew rambutan trees made such pretty wood! I used to love the fruit as a kid, although of course I only ever had the canned version. Can't wait to see the guitar. I guess it will be like a Martin size #5?

I like that electric. Reminds me a bit of the original Bigsby.

Hahaha... Hi Greg, come to Indonesia, you can eat many kinds of rambutan flavors or come to Malang East Java, I will serve you many rambutan... just about $0.5 /kg. Yes, Greg Martin style 5, 3/4 size acoustic I bought the plan from LMI PL30 by Scott Antes 1981

Indeed, love the rambutan! If you have plenty, add me to the list Maybe we could have you mail several sets to one of us to save on international shipping, and then they split it up and mail out locally?

Side bending is hard, but fun. My bender is a hunk of 3" diameter exhaust pipe from a local muffler shop, and an electric charcoal starter, run through a dimmer switch. Or you could go old fashioned and use actual charcoal as the heat source Or a propane torch.

Looking forward to watching the build. I've gotta make one of those size 5 guitars myself someday.

Hi,.. Dennisk for the very hard wood like rambutan How many thick you made for SIDE??? .07"?, .08"? need suggestion... thank's...

Hi,.. Dennisk for the very hard wood like rambutan How many thick you made for SIDE??? .07"?, .08"? need suggestion... thank's...

For your guitar, or for potential selling of sets? .08" would probably be good as a general starting point for most people. I like thin sides, with full height side braces to stiffen them back up, and prevent splits from spreading. On a small instrument like that, I'd probably go down to .05-.06" depending on how stiff it feels. If you're not doing side braces, probably keep it in the .07-.08" range, maybe a little thinner at the waist to help bend.

When bending, if it doesn't want to go, try putting a paper towel over the pipe and spray it with water regularly to keep it from drying out. Some woods will bend fairly dry, but others need steam. I'm still not very good at bending though... takes forever.

Hi Greg, come to Indonesia, you can eat many kinds of rambutan flavors

LOL. Yes, I'd love to. Indonesia has been near the top of my list of places I'd love to visit for some time. It might be a few years before I can afford the trip though. I just asked my employer to send me there on 'business', but they didn't seem to like that idea...

RE: side bending. Try it first on scrap. You will feel the wood give way when it wants to move. Don't force it. Some woods must be fairly wet to bend at all. Padauk is like this. The danger is that if it's too wet, you can get uneven bending and facets, which will need to be sanded out. In addition, they all have different temperature requirements.

I agree with Dennis about the side thickness recommendations. .085" is 'standard', but .07 to .08 is a good range for a small guitar, and you'll have a little room for sanding. Thinner sides and a (slightly) thicker back is usually helpful for bass, an important consideration in a small guitar.

Hi Greg, come to Indonesia, you can eat many kinds of rambutan flavors

RE: side bending.The danger is that if it's too wetGreg, I've ever read old style guitar making, and it suggested to boil the side for about an hour before hot bending,.. what you think? ....

LOL. Yes, I'd love to. Indonesia has been near the top of my list of places I'd love to visit for some time. It might be a few years before I can afford the trip though. I just asked my employer to send me there on 'business', but they didn't seem to like that idea...

RE: side bending. Try it first on scrap. You will feel the wood give way when it wants to move. Don't force it. Some woods must be fairly wet to bend at all. Padauk is like this. The danger is that if it's too wet, you can get uneven bending and facets, which will need to be sanded out. In addition, they all have different temperature requirements.

I agree with Dennis about the side thickness recommendations. .085" is 'standard', but .07 to .08 is a good range for a small guitar, and you'll have a little room for sanding. Thinner sides and a (slightly) thicker back is usually helpful for bass, an important consideration in a small guitar.

Regarding boiling sides: I actually did a dulcimer and a baritone uke this way many years ago, following Irving Sloane's book. It can work if the wood is very straight grained and well quartered, but even then you'll get some cupping that has to be sanded out. Your wood looks very figured. I think it would bend very unevenly if boiled.

I strongly recommend rigging up a hot pipe. Hot pipes really work better than boiling, because they tend to iron the wood flat crosswise as you are bending it. The pipe method lets you avoid a lot of unnecessary work scraping the sides.

Like Clinchriver says - practice on scrap first.

Don't worry too much about bending sides. This particular part of guitarmaking tends to intimidate people, but it's really not that difficult. Just go slow and keep fussing with them until they fit the outline. Other aspects of building are actually harder to do well: like binding and finishing.

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